Raspberry Coconut Ice Hearts (No-Cook)

Raspberry Coconut Ice Hearts (No-Cook)

by | Jan 21, 2018 | 0 comments

Boiled coconut ice was one of my favourite things to make as a kid – I used to use the recipe on the side of the sugar packet until quite recently, well, until I discovered this no-cook coconut ice and my life changed forever! Because nobody likes standing over a boiling pot of sugar in the middle of summer!  Icing sugar, condensed milk and coconut make a deliciously creamy treat, especially when layered with tart raspberries. Make it extra special and drizzle or dip it in dark chocolate – or white chocolate!

Raspberry Coconut Ice Hearts

Makes 24

 

2 cups Natura Sugars Demerara icing sugar, sifted

3 1/2 cups desiccated coconut

1 can (397g) condensed milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 drops rose water (optional)

pink food colouring

60g blended, fresh raspberries.

 

Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. To make the coconut ice, place the icing sugar and coconut into a large mixing bowl. Add the condensed milk and vanilla and mix well. Press half the mixture into the lined baking tin to form a smooth layer. To the remaining coconut ice, add the rose water, pink food colouring and blended fresh raspberries. If the mixture is still sticky, add a little coconut until it’s the same consistency as the white layer. Press the pink layer on top of the white layer and allow to firm up for 1 hour. Once slightly firm, unmould the coconut ice then slice the 20cm square in half. Place the one half on top of the other to form 4 stripes. Using a sharp bread knife, slice the coconut ice into 1cm slices then use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the slices. Place on a lined baking sheet, uncovered, for 1-2 hours until firm. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

 

 

TIP Save the off cuts and fold them into ice cream or crumble on top of a frosted cake as a quick decoration.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

by | Jan 6, 2018 | 2 comments

 This post for cookie ice cream cones is sponsored by Natura Sugars

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
What if the ice cream cone was AS delicious as the ice cream that was in it?! I present to you… the cookie ice cream cone! It’s both delicious AND portable and pure genius. I get asked the question ‘Cup or Cone?’ at least twice a week. Yes, I eat ice cream twice a week, at least, don’t judge! But never in a cone, thanks. I go for the cup every time. Why? Because I really don’t like the taste of the waffle cone. It’s too sweet, artificial tasting and is a total waste of calories. It could be so much better and so I set to work!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
You could use pretty much any cookie recipe to make these cookie ice cream cones but you’re going to want to use mine, trust me. It’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the world – and I’ve tried A LOT! But what takes the cookie to a whole ‘nother level is the sugar I’ve used. Natura Sugars has this sandy, voluptuous soft brown sugar that is fudgey and gives these babies a chewiness on the inside but leaves the edges crispy crunchy – in my opinion, what every cookie should be!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
While they may look like a challenge, these cones are really easy to make. Simply whip up the cookie dough, then roll it into big balls. Next, use a rolling pin to roll them really thin and bake! While they’re still hot shape them around a normal ice cream cone which has been covered in foil (in my opinion, that’s the only use for them, really) and allow to cool! I like to stuff the bottom of my cones with a marshmallow to stop drips, and coating the inside of the cookie ice cream cone with melted chocolate would be pretty amazing too – or try this chocolate ice cap sauce!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
If cookie ice cream cones are not your thing, you could also shape them into cookie ice cream bowls by draping the hot cookie over a glass or muffin tin. All that’s left is to pile in the ice cream, sprinkles and sauce – and invite some friends around for an ice cream par-tay!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Makes 12

 

200g salted butter, softened

340g Natura Sugars Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

1 large egg

300g cake flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g The Kate Tin Dark Baking Chocolate, chopped

 

Preheat oven to 200°C (or 180°C fan-forced). Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream for 8-10 minutes until pale, creamy and light. Add the vanilla, milk and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and chopped chocolate and mix to combine. Roll out golf-ball size balls of the cookie batter between two squares of baking paper until 2-3mm thin then place onto a baking tray, leaving enough room for spreading. It’s easiest to bake two at a time. Bake for 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown but the centre should still be chewy. While still hot, turn the cookie over and wrap it around a waffle cone wrapped in foil and hold it in place for a few seconds until it starts to firm up. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

 

TIP This cookie dough freezes very well so make a huge batch, roll into balls and freeze in a ziplock bag. Then simply bake them from frozen!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
WATCH HOW TO MAKE THEM HERE:
Homemade Tim Tams

Homemade Tim Tams

by | Nov 2, 2017 | 5 comments

Tim Tams came into my life rather late. I was 21, had just received my first (very meager) salary and was standing in the supermarket aisle with an intense desire to splurge. I’d seen these cookies before but had always been outraged by the ridiculous price tag. Where they made of gold to be deserving of 50 Randelas?! On this particular day though, it was this exact ridiculous price tag that lured me in – after all, my bank account was full!  I went home and ate the entire packet in one sitting. Since then, Tim Tams have become my treat. I share them with no one. I eat them in secret. If you’re a hardcore Tim Tam fan like me, though, you’ll have noticed that there are times when this Australian treat is impossible to find in South Africa. It’s like the ozzies hog them. How rude. Don’t worry though, because during Tim Tam shortages, you can now make your own. Yes, I cracked the recipe and they are so good you may never buy a packet again!

 

Print
Homemade Tim Tams

Yield: 14

Homemade Tim Tams

Ingredients

    For the Biscuits:
  • 150g butter
  • 150g soft light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp (45ml) golden syrup
  • 330g cake flour
  • 60g The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 3-4 tsp milk
    • Filling
  • 115g butter softened
  • 125g icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 tbsp The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder
  • 2 tbsp milk powder, lightly toasted (or Horlicks or Milo)
  • 200g good-quality milk chocolate, melted (I use AFRIKOA milk chocolate)
  • 1 tbsp odourless coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celscius.
  2. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and set aside.
  3. For the biscuits, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy – about 8 minutes.
  4. Beat in the golden syrup.
  5. Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and bicarbonate of soda into the creamed mixture.
  6. Add the milk a bit at a time, until you get a soft even dough. It should be a bit crumbly, but just come together.
  7. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about a minute, until it comes together.
  8. Roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin about 1/2cm thick.
  9. Cut out into rectangles 8cm x 4cm and then carefully lift onto the prepared baking sheet with a metal spatula, leaving some space in between the biscuits.
  10. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, then remove from the oven.
  11. Carefully lift onto a wire rack to cool completely.
  12. To make the filling, cream the butter together with the icing sugar, cocoa powder and toasted milk powder.
  13. Add a little milk to bring the frosting together.
  14. Spread a heaped teaspoon onto each of half the baked biscuits and then top with another one, pressing down lightly.
  15. Repeat until all the biscuits are filled.
  16. Stir the coconut oil into the melted milk chocolate.
  17. Dip the bottom of each biscuit and allow to set on a sheet of baking paper. Place the set biscuits on a cooling rack with a baking sheet underneath then pour the chocolate over the biscuits to coat completely.
  18. Allow to set then store in an airtight container.
https://thekatetin.com/homemade-tim-tams/

Want more chocolate? Of course you do:

Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

Chocolate Sweetie Pies

Make Your Own Mocha Hazelnut Spread

Make Your Own Mocha Hazelnut Spread

by | Jun 22, 2017 | 4 comments

Chocolate, coffee and toast? Sounds like a pretty normal breakfast for me! But because mornings are rushed and crazy why not have them all at once? Introducing Nutella’s caffeine-fueled (more delicious) cousin, spiked with coffee and coconut oil (no palm oil, thanks!) and toasty hazelnuts. And it’s as easy as chucking some things in a blender!
The best part about this recipe, is that you can tailor it to make whatever you like – use odourless coconut oil to make it more chocolatey, add more coffee if you like, swop out the nuts for almonds, macadamias, brazil nuts and switch up the honey by using maple syrup or agave. This spread can be as naughty or healthy as you want it to be – I prefer naughty, but that’s no surprise!
Tell me in the comments below (or on this Facebook post): What is the naughtiest breakfast food you’ve ever had? You could win a Defy Breakfast Pack consisting of a Red Sense kettle and toaster valued at R1300. (entries for South Africa only – sorry!) I’ll randomly select a winner on the 29 June 2017 and announce it on Facebook. [COMPETITION CLOSED]. Come on, tell me your dirty breakfast food secrets!

Homemade Mocha Hazelnut Spread

Makes 250ml

 

2/3 cup hazelnuts (or any other nut), roasted, skins removed

1 tsp good-quality instant coffee powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder

½ cup coconut oil (regular or odourless – depending on the flavour you like)

½ cup honey (or maple syrup – if it’s pay-day)

½ tsp vanilla extract or essence

 

Soak the hazelnuts in water overnight, then drain and rinse well. In a blender, blitz the hazelnuts to form a paste then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides regularly to make sure everything is incorporated. If the spread is too thick, add 1 tbsp hot water and blitz. Pour the mixture in a jar and store in the refrigerator for two weeks. Serve on toast or with a spoon!

 

TIP Remove hazelnut skins easily by placing the still-warm roasted nuts in a clean tea towel then bundle it up to form a sack and rub nuts together. The skins should come off easily!

Strawberry and Vanilla Jam

Strawberry and Vanilla Jam

by | Nov 17, 2016 | 1 comment

SPONSORED

Making jam is something that brings me an immense amount of joy! Not just because of the heavenly smell that wafts from the simmering pot on the stove but because that heavenly smell makes me feel like a kid again. It transports me back to being barely tall enough to peer over the stove when my sister and I would help my mom make strawberry jam. We’d get boxes full of cheap, overripe strawberries in the middle of summer from a neighbour who farmed them and then spend the day trimming and simmering them so we could enjoy the sweetness of summer all year around.  Because there’s nothing that can brighten up a gloomy winter day than a thick slick of cheery strawberry jam on warm toast! The other reason making jam makes me happy is that I get to use my very special vintage sugar thermometer – it belonged to my great great grandmother and has been handed down to each baker in the family. It makes my heart incredibly happy to put it into a pot of jam for what must be the 10 000th time!

The first step to delicious jam, is getting your hands on some seriously delicious fruit. And while I don’t have a neighbour growing an endless supply of strawberries (trust me, it’s on my list for the next move) so a trip to a strawberry farm was on the cards (and it’s probably going to be on yours too.) There are stacks of places where you can pick your own fruit in South Africa – the closest farm to me was Polkadraai Farm near Stellenbosch, but there’s also Tangaroa Strawberry Farm in Magaliesberg and The Red Berry Farm in my hometown of George. Know of any more? Anyway, I got ridiculously excited and picked about 2kg of strawberries which cost me just R90! Who’s getting jam for Christmas? Everyone.

There’s jam, and there is really really delicious jam that’s so good you want to dollop it on ice cream or squish it between melting moments. The first, is obviously, use the sweetest, juiciest fruit that’s in the height of season – and at it’s most delicious. The second, is to use an excellent quality sugar; all sugars are not created equal and since we’re highlighting the deliciousness of nature, we should use an equally natural sugar. The brand new Natura Sugars Light Golden Brown Sugar is unrefined, fine textured and perfect for making jam!

The third secret I learnt from the appelkooskonfyt queen (apricot jam queen) of Cape Town, Tannie Anita Boonzaaier… her secret? Freezing the fruit! It concentrates the flavours, reduces the cooking time and results in the BEST jam!

If you want to jazz things up, you can create whatever flavour jam you like by simply using the 2/3 ratio. Weigh your fruit then add 2/3 of that weight in sugar – easy! The recipe below is in the smallest amount possible – it makes 2 x 250ml jars – so you’re not left with jam coming out your ears (like I am). But if you want to make more (Christmas gifts!) then simply double or triple it up (but make sure you have a big enough pot!). And if you’re wondering what the lemon seeds do, they add natural pectin to the jam, so you don’t need to stress about adding it when nature makes it, right?

Homemade Strawberry and Vanilla Jam

Makes 500ml

 

750g ripe strawberries, washed

Juice of 1 lemon (1/4 cup)

1 tsp lemon seeds

1 small vanilla bean

500g Natura Sugars Golden Light Brown Sugar

 

Remove the hulls of the strawberries and place them on a baking tray. Freeze until solid – this step intensifies the flavour of the jam as it breaks down the fruit cells. Place the frozen strawberries in a pot then place over a low heat and simmer for 5 minutes stirring occasionally until the strawberries break down. Squeeze the juice from the lemon, keeping the seeds. Place the seeds in a piece of muslin cloth and tie it with string. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Add the sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and tie the muslin parcel to the side of the pot so it won’t escape. Increase the heat, bring to the boil and place a sugar thermometer in the pot. Skim any foam from the surface – so you’ll have a clear jam! Once the jam reaches 105°C, it is done. You can also test it by dropping a small amount on a chilled saucer then place it back in the fridge for a few minutes. The jam is ready when it forms a skin. Pour the jam into sterilized jars and allow to cool completely.

 

TIP To sterilize jars, place the jars and lids (along with a ladle, for filling) on a baking sheet in a preheated oven set to 180°C. Bake them for 5 minutes then fill the hot jars with the hot jam.

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Homemade Tinned Caramel (Dulce De Leche)

Homemade Tinned Caramel (Dulce De Leche)

by | Sep 16, 2016 | 3 comments

If I had to pick one food that completely represented my childhood it would be boiled, tinned caramel (dulce de leche). On the first day of every school holiday, my mother would put 6 tins of condensed milk in a massive pot of boiling water and simmer them away for hours on end until the contents turned golden and caramelised.

Each tin would then get our names scribbled on in permanent marker; Sarah-Jane, Leigh-Anne, Dale, Lynne, Steve and Katelyn before being put in the fridge.  No room for ‘Oh I’m sorry I ate yours – I thought it was mine’ which had been my sneaky plan for years until my mother figured out what I was up to. Once your tin of caramel was finished, that was it. Obviously I finished mine in the first day or two, my sisters however would eat theirs for WEEKS! How is that even possible?!

If you’ve ever made your own boiled condensed milk caramel, then you will know that it doesn’t even come close to the store-bought tinned caramel! Peppermint crisp tart, made with homemade caramel? Total game-changer. While my usual way of making boiled caramel is in the tin, I also stumbled upon a second method from Donna Hay which is just as effective – especially if the idea of boiling tins makes you nervous!

Method 1: The Williams Way

After the pressure cooker explosion of 1994 my mother and I decided it’s safer to rather ditch my grandmother’s method and do it in a vessel that won’t risk our lives. Remove the labels, place the tins in a large pot, completely cover with water, place the lid on and simmer for 2-3 hours (topping up with water every now and then). I like to boil mine a little longer so it really goes dark – it’s less sweet and with a pinch of salt, it’s just mind-blowingly good.

WARNING: Whatever you do, do not let the tins boil dry. No water in the pot will cause the tins to overheat and explode. Also, while I realise you may be so excited to eat the caramel that you’ll want to crack the tin open asap. Do so at your peril! Allow the tins to cool completely before tucking in. Trust me on this one. I’ve been there (and got the scars to prove it!)

Method 2: The Donna Hay Way

Ah Donna, my hero, my inspiration – and after I spotted her way of making dulce de leche, I loved her even more! Open the tin of condensed milk and pour the contents out into a 20 x 20cm baking tin. Cover the surface with baking paper and then cover the whole tin with foil. Place the tin in a bain marie with water coming up halfway to the sides and bake in a preheated oven at 220 degrees celsius for 1 1/2 hours – 2 hours.  Whisk the cooled caramel until smooth and place into jars – although I don’t think the last part is necessary (‘cos you’re going to eat it straight away anyway!)